Shroud of Eternity Page 5

  The guard captain looked at Amos, ignoring the strangers. “We’ve been expecting you back, young man.”

  Amos and his two friends pushed through the gate. “No matter what you do with my mother, you don’t command me, Captain.” He glanced over his shoulder at Nicci, Nathan, and Bannon, who were still waiting to be introduced. “This is High Captain Avery, the head of the city guard. He’ll know what to do.” He turned back to the muscular man. “The woman is a sorceress, and the old one claims to be a wizard. Apparently, they have some business in Ildakar and have come a long way. I turn them over to you. Take them to my parents in the ruling tower.” He paused and glanced at Bannon, considering. “You’ll stay with them, I suppose?”

  Bannon brushed back his long ginger hair and made up his mind. “Yes, I will.”

  Amos clearly had no further interest. “Fine. My friends and I have other things to do.”

  Jed pushed forward. “Let’s go to the bathhouse first. Slaves can bring food to us there.”

  “I thought you wanted to visit the silk yaxen first,” Brock said.

  “Tonight,” Amos replied. “There’ll be plenty of time.”

  Without a second glance, the three youths entered the bustling city, while High Captain Avery frowned at the three strangers. “Come with me.”

  After they entered through the wall, he slammed the door behind them, then threw numerous bolts to keep the barricade intact. Once they were securely locked inside, the guard captain said, “Welcome to Ildakar.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Nicci didn’t like to have doors closed behind her. Or locked.

  After the small common entry was sealed, she looked up at the tall ceremonial gate that towered above her head. The door seemed impenetrable, the layered wood adorned with exotic designs, even the rippling curves of denial-based spell-forms.

  Nathan also pondered the wooden barrier behind him, his brow furrowed, but then he forced a smile. He said to Nicci, “We wanted to come to this city, and now we’re inside. I will take that as a good thing.”

  Taking the lead, she faced High Captain Avery. With her black dress, long blond hair, and shapely form, Nicci did not look intimidating, even with a dagger at each hip, but the intensity of her blue-eyed gaze gave the guard captain pause. “I am Nicci, a representative of the D’Haran Empire. This is Nathan Rahl, wizard and roving ambassador for D’Hara.”

  “And this is our companion, Bannon,” Nathan added.

  The young man touched the sword at his side. “I help defend them.” He glanced at the three youths, who slipped away into the crowds without even looking back at them.

  Avery regarded them with a narrow stony face that was both handsome and aloof. He had close-cropped brown hair and sported a well-groomed mustache, but the rest of his face was clean-shaven.

  “We have come to Ildakar to speak to your leaders,” Nicci said.

  “Then it is my obligation to take you to the ruling tower. Up there.” With a brusque nod, he indicated the top of the plateau high above these lower levels of the city. A sleek tower rose from the summit, overlooking the streets below. “I don’t know if the wizards’ duma is in session, but the sovrena and the wizard commander will be there.” Leaving other guards at the gate, Avery commanded five of the armed men to accompany them as an escort through the streets.

  Ildakar was a city that throbbed with colors, exotic smells, and fascinating sights. They walked at a brisk military pace, as if Avery had no interest in delay or small talk. People watched them as they marched past, and Bannon turned from side to side as he drank in the turbulence of fascination. “This city is even bigger than Tanimura.”

  Nicci assessed the streets and buildings around her. “Tanimura is more sprawling, but Ildakar is contained, everything compact, not an inch wasted.”

  Nobles, merchants, and tradesmen wore loose, clean clothes with accents of rich colors, while others wore drab linen pants and rough tunics with frayed sleeves and necklines. Instead of well-tooled boots, the drab ones wore only sandals. Nicci assumed they were the lower classes, the workers, for they were carrying water jugs, pulling carts, lifting crates, or sweeping out gutters. And they kept their eyes averted.

  Following the guards along the winding cobblestoned streets, she noticed that even here in the lower level, the paving was well maintained, the walkways were swept. The brick homes were covered with whitewash, the roofs layered with baked terra-cotta tiles, glazed with bright colors, like the scales of a dragon. Workers climbed wooden ladders and stood on the roofs, repairing loose tiles or installing new glazed pieces to make striped patterns that could only be seen from the upper levels of Ildakar.

  Gold-trimmed purple banners hung from high buildings or bell towers. The banners bore the ubiquitous symbol of Ildakar, a stylized sun from which emanated jagged lightning bolts. The design looked powerful and dangerous at the same time.

  The streets formed an upward, spiraling curve like a graceful snail’s shell that rose to the top of the tapering plateau. The most magnificent buildings occupied the upper level, grand villas and a prominent stair-stepped pyramid as well as the high tower on the edge of an abrupt drop-off.

  “From a geological perspective, this is quite unusual,” Nathan said. “The wizards of Ildakar must have extruded this high mound to make it a defensible fortress above the plain.”

  Avery gave a curt nod. “Yes, rather than find a place that suited their needs, the wizards created exactly what they wanted, right here. They uplifted half of the valley, then constructed this magnificent city, which has stood for millennia—and will stand for eternity.”

  They reached a small square where alleys intersected with the main thoroughfare. At a fountain where water spilled out of cast bronze river fish, women filled jugs of water. Others gathered to wash at hemispherical public basins mounted on prominent walls, filled with trickling water supplied by aqueducts that ran throughout the city.

  In terraces along the city slopes, narrow strips of arable land held tightly packed orchards of dwarf fruit and nut trees. Narrow vineyards rolled up slopes, where precariously balanced workers picked the grapes and filled baskets slung at their hips. Agile children in drab clothes climbed the dense vines of hanging gardens, swinging out to reach among the foliage to pluck fruit. Flowers growing in pots on windowsills added a splash of color and sweet perfume to the air.

  Nicci felt a brief pang. The flower gardens reminded her of Thistle, how the spunky young girl had longed to see the world restored to beauty, including frivolous flower gardens. Nicci herself had been forced to kill the girl in order to obtain the weapon she needed. That black twist of grief and guilt made her pause briefly in her step; then she focused her thoughts, hardened the walls around her emotions. She had long ago formed a heart of black ice, and she didn’t want to let it melt now.

  “Are those olive trees up on that outcropping?” Nathan pointed, tossing back his shoulder-length white hair. “I do enjoy olives.”

  “That is the sovrena’s private grove. You will find them especially delicious because the ground is fertilized by the bodies of slaves.”

  Nicci felt a chill. “And that makes them taste better?”

  Avery nodded. “More vibrant, more plump. Filled with life.”

  “I doubt the slaves would agree,” Bannon muttered.

  The people in Ildakar seemed calm, although Nicci detected little mirth and heard no music. The conversations seemed businesslike rather than joyous.

  Nathan asked, “Do you get many visitors from outside, Captain? How often is the shroud down so the rest of the world can see Ildakar?”

  “In fifteen hundred years we have lost contact with much of the world, but we do receive some outside trade, mostly via the river, but also from some of the hill towns to the north. At present, few enough people know that Ildakar has emerged from behind the veil of time.”

  “Then we are glad to reestablish a diplomatic conversation,” Nathan said. “We wish to tell you about the D’Haran
Empire and Lord Rahl’s new rule. I also have an important personal request.”

  “Our leaders will hear you,” Avery said, though he promised nothing more. “Sovrena Thora and Wizard Commander Maxim will decide whether or not you can stay in Ildakar, or if you must leave before the shroud is restored again.”

  Nicci frowned. “Your invitation is premature, Captain. We have not asked to remain here, and we plan to leave before we are trapped.”

  Avery failed to grasp the reason for her concern. “I did not make an invitation, merely stated a fact. It is the sovrena’s decision.”

  Heading away from them down the street, a young man in a plain tunic and stained pantaloons drove a group of lumbering beasts of burden, thick-shouldered cattlelike creatures with brown fur. The beasts plodded away, bleating out mournful sounds, as if in a slow-motion march to an executioner.

  “Get those yaxen out of the way, boy!” Avery grumbled. “Use the back thoroughfares, not the main streets.”

  “Sorry, my lord Captain.” The young man had a mop of brown hair and flashed a grin to reveal his missing front tooth. “The beasts need to drink at the fountain, and then I’ll put them right back down the side street.”

  “They shouldn’t be drinking from the public fountain, not in the high levels of the city.”

  “But the sovrena says the water is for everyone.”

  “Yes, she does.” Avery’s voice turned into a growl. “But water them in your place. These fountains are for gifted nobles and higher tradesmen. They don’t want their water tainted by yaxen spittle.”

  “Apologies, my lord Captain,” the boy said, without sounding contrite at all. He snapped the sharp tip of a switch against the hindquarters of the rearmost yaxen. The beasts moved forward, bleating out their dismal moans.

  Two of the creatures turned their heads to look back at them, and Nicci was shocked to see not the wide-set eyes and flat bovine visage of a stupid cow. Rather, the yaxen faces looked eerily humanlike, with the distorted expressions of damned men. Shaggy hair covered their heads, and thick beards ran along their chins. Their mouths were open, letting pale ribbons of drool run out. Blunted horns atop the skull seemed to be no more than decoration. Both yaxen turned away and plodded onward.

  Nicci stared, shocked by what she had seen. “Dear spirits, are they human?”

  “Far less than human,” Avery said. “They are yaxen.”

  After the boy had driven the animals away, the escort led them across the square toward a side street. When the buildings opened up above her, Nicci saw the ruling tower, which loomed above them at the top of the plateau, reminding her of the fortress lighthouse that rose over Grafan Harbor.

  Among the milling people on this side of the square, Nicci detected an excitement she hadn’t noticed before. Men and women in the drab clothes of lower classes jabbered and whispered next to the more colorful merchants and nobles.

  When Avery and his guards pushed forward to investigate, someone let out a warning whistle. The crowd melted into private businesses, ducking into doorways and hurrying away like a flock of birds that scattered into the sky.

  Avery’s expression darkened as he marched up to a brick wall just around the corner in a side street. Glinting silvery shards had been thrust like ornaments between cracks in the bricks. Other reflective glints protruded from the wood of the doorjambs and window frames.

  “Look at the little mirrors,” Bannon said. “Someone decorated this alley.”

  Avery withdrew his short sword and used the flat of the blade to smash the mirror shards. He called to his men, “Remove them all! Search these streets and make sure there are no more.” He swept his sword again, releasing the sound of tinkling reflective glass. “Clean up every bit.”

  “Are you afraid of your reflection?” Nicci asked with a hint of sarcasm.

  The guard captain rounded on her. “I’m more concerned with rebels. The followers of Mirrormask did this. They want us to believe their numbers are greater than they really are, and they do this in the middle of the night to taunt us. We cannot let them gain a foothold.”

  “Mirrormask?” Nathan mused. “Now that sounds like an interesting story. Would you tell us the tale before we reach the tower?”

  “No. As captain of the city guard, it is my duty to protect and defend Ildakar. If you want stories, ask the sovrena or the wizard commander.”

  He abruptly cut off his conversation as he marched at a faster pace. Near the top of the plateau, the sloping streets were filled with more gardens, orchards, and trellises. Avery did not speak another word until they reached the entrance to the ruling tower.

  CHAPTER 8

  The high pillar of stone rose up from the edge of the sandstone plateau like the tusk of some ancient beast. Serpentine loops and lines carved into the tower’s outer walls formed an intricate web that spiraled up to the pinnacle that overlooked the residential district and winding streets below.

  Nathan stared up at the sheer face of the tower. “Dear spirits, that’s a web—a protective spell constructed into the tower. This place must be impregnable.”

  “It is said to be,” Avery replied. “But it has not been tested, since no one ever breached the outer walls of Ildakar.”

  The broad summit of the plateau was populated with numerous palatial buildings, villas, and an imposing pyramid adorned with curved metal devices; Nicci wondered if the stair-stepped structure might be an astronomical observatory.

  They had a breathtaking view of the city below, with terraced fields and hanging gardens, fountains and reservoirs, glittering cisterns and enamel-painted tile roofs that spread out like a rainbow across the buildings far below.

  “I am impressed with these defenses,” Nicci said. “A city endures if its people remember that there are always others who wish to destroy it.”

  Avery stepped through the curved arch of the tower’s entrance, and they followed him inside. Nicci felt the temperature drop by several degrees. Bannon wiped perspiration from his brow, smearing his long ginger hair out of the way. “It’s much cooler in here.”

  “The wizards keep it that way,” Avery said. “Note the glyphs on the walls.”

  The strange designs carved into the interior stone blocks emanated magic, and Nicci realized these were concentration points of a passive spell. “Transference magic?”

  Nathan nodded. “Yes, the glyphs drain excess heat from the air and channel it elsewhere, possibly to kitchens or fireplaces.”

  Avery did not offer his opinion as he led them deeper inside to a dominant central staircase, a cascade of steps hewn out of variegated stone, green-veined granite, white and black marble. The ornamental balustrades were carved like eels looping down the staircase.

  The stairs led up to a landing, then another flight of stairs, then a third landing higher in the tower. At the third landing, the stairs opened up into a wide receiving room. As she followed the guard captain, Nicci instinctively understood the psychology of the construction. Jagang had taught her much when he built so many enormous structures as he swept over the land. The steep stairs, the several landings, and finally the open gallery into a grandiose main room—the architecture was designed to delay supplicants, to leave them flushed and breathless by the time they faced the powerful rulers.

  But Nicci refused to tremble when she met the leaders of Ildakar, whoever they were.

  Inside the great chamber, slanted sunlight shone through high arched windows that dominated one of the side walls. The view through the thin panes of clear glass showed the sprawling city far below.

  Avery’s boots made loud noises as he strode across blue marble tiles that were polished to such a sheen they looked like puddles of water. Like an island above the lake of blue marble, a raised dais featured two ornate and imposing chairs, on which sat a man and a woman. At each side of the main floor, two curved marble tables with empty stone benches were reserved for more council members, three or four on each side.

  Avery stepped up to the rais
ed dais and dropped to one knee. His fur-lined cape spread out across his shoulders and back. “Sovrena Thora, Wizard Commander Maxim, I bring you visitors from beyond the shroud, from a distant land called D’Hara.”

  Sovrena Thora was a tall, willowy woman so beautiful she seemed to be made of porcelain. She had a narrow chin, a rosebud mouth, and haunting sea-green eyes. Her lustrous hair was like threads of polished brass done up in intricate loops and whorls. Her fine gown of sky-blue silk was trimmed with bands of striped gray fur. The dress hung in a rippling band from her left shoulder, wrapped around her ample breasts; reaching her narrow waist, the fabric became a waterfall of skirts that draped over her bent knees and down to her ankles.

  On either side of her chair hung two gold-wire cages that held flitting, chirping songbirds, but Thora seemed to pay no attention to the scattered birdsong.

  Next to her sat a handsome man of average build, presumably Wizard Commander Maxim. He had short brown hair, dark eyebrows, and a dark goatee. Wearing an impish smile, he lounged back in his throne, one knee crossed over the other. His black pantaloons seemed woven from obsidian fiber rather than silk. His shirt was open, and an amethyst pendant hung from a gold chain around his throat to nest among the dark curls of his chest hair.

  Drawing upon her promises to Richard, Nicci took charge and stepped forward, head held high. She summoned the presence of her personality as she faced the two leaders, refusing to bow as High Captain Avery had. “We’ve heard of this legendary city, and we come with the news of Lord Rahl and the golden age he will bring to the world.”

  Thora sat ramrod straight and looked directly at Nicci, ignoring Nathan and Bannon, and spoke in a strong, husky voice. “We welcome you, but Ildakar is independent. We have little interest in the outside world.”